In the year 325, beginning on May 20—there are no accidents—Constantine, emperor of the remnants of Rome, called roughly 300 Christian bishops to the town of Nicea, about 85 miles southeast of Istanbul.

Prior job: Investment banker, chairman of WL Ross & Co. LLC
Fun fact: Ross has been given honors by former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Akihito, the emperor of Japan, for his financial help with both countries, according to his biography.

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Did You Know?

The words emperor, caesar, czar, and Kaiser all go back to one source: the title of the first Roman emperor, Imperator Caesar Augustus. Augustus was the adopted son of the Roman general and ruler Julius Caesar and he took the name Caesar as part of his official name. Later Roman emperors did the same, and thus caesar came to mean “an emperor of Rome.” The word caesar was borrowed into German and other Germanic languages as Kaiser, which is how we get the word kaiser for “a ruler in Germany.” Through the Russian word tsar, which also came from kaiser, we got our word czar, meaning “a ruler in Russia.” The word emperor can be traced through French to Latin imperator. Imperator was a title given to great Roman generals and meant “commander,” from the verb imperare “to command.”

Origin and Etymology of emperor

Middle English emperour, borrowed from Anglo-French empereor, amperour, going back to Latin imperātōr-, imperātor "person giving orders, commanding officer, title of honor bestowed on a victorious general by his troops, title conferred by the Roman senate on Julius Caesar and Augustus and adopted by later successors," from imperāre "to demand the production of, levy, give orders, exercise authority, hold political power" (from im-2in- + parāre "to supply, provide, make ready") + -tōr-, -tor, agent suffix — more at pare